Will Skyrim properly support context-switching? : V

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 10:18 am

It's a real bummer to have the game crash everytime you try to alt-tab out of it, say, to look up something on UESP. There's really no valid excuse why it shouldn't have worked with Morrowind and Oblivion (not supporting alt-tab is just making an excuse for buggy code.) and I'd really hope that, by Skyrim, Bethesda would have figured out how to properly handled this.

Just a wish is all.

» Fri Feb 18, 2011 8:50 pm

While I hope skyrim does handle this better, I find that native resolution borderless windowed mode is superior, if you have the hardware to run at native resolution.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 1:33 am

New engine, so there is a good chance... if it is actually stable this time around

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 7:16 am

Yes, it's really anoying not being able to sitch to another aplication. By the way, in Oblivion you can use alt-tab if you have both the console and the main menu at the same time. It's not totally safe, but works frecuently.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 5:09 am

While I hope skyrim does handle this better, I find that native resolution borderless windowed mode is superior, if you have the hardware to run at native resolution.

The problem with doing that is that it basically disables the game's ability to directly access the 3D hardware because it has to share the screen with other applications (even if you can't see them). This means piping the output through GDI on Windows XP, It's not as bad on Vista and 7 due to DWM and compositing but it's still slower because you have to share video memory with the other programs.

» Fri Feb 18, 2011 6:40 pm

Really the game crashing on alt-tab was a major flaw. It's surprising they never bothered fixing it. I'd go so far as to say it's partially incompatible with Windows due to that issue.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 12:18 am

You should be too busy playing to even think of alt-tabbing.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 4:51 am

The problem with doing that is that it basically disables the game's ability to directly access the 3D hardware because it has to share the screen with other applications (even if you can't see them). This means piping the output through GDI on Windows XP, It's not as bad on Vista and 7 due to DWM and compositing but it's still slower because you have to share video memory with the other programs.

Well, while on XP that was an issue, hardware has progressed to the point where sharing your resources with what, a web browser? is no longer an issue, especially as stagnated as gaming has become. In any case, Skyrim looks to be a very console game, so any modern hardware shouldn't have an issue.

» Fri Feb 18, 2011 11:29 pm

Well, while on XP that was an issue, hardware has progressed to the point where sharing your resources with what, a web browser? is no longer an issue, especially as stagnated as gaming has become. In any case, Skyrim looks to be a very console game, so any modern hardware shouldn't have an issue.

See this :
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/304669/why-direct3d-application-performs-better-in-full-screen-mode

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 12:20 am

Maybe they'll solve it like New Vegas did: Mandatory Steam usage: Shift-Tab to Steam browser works fine, and mandatory implementation means "svck it up and enjoy, you got it whether you want it or not."

» Fri Feb 18, 2011 10:32 pm

See this :
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/304669/why-direct3d-application-performs-better-in-full-screen-mode

I realise that the theoretical performance hit can be significant, in practice any modern card has an abundance of power for most tasks these days. I can live with still running at 60fps instead of 60fps with a bit of headroom for the advantages.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 10:15 am

The game will be on Steam, folks. You can surf the web via the browser built into the Steam shell in-game. I do it all the time with FONV. Though... FONV for me is stable enough to handle being minimized, so it's not as crucial.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 9:57 am

Maybe they'll solve it like New Vegas did: Mandatory Steam usage: Shift-Tab to Steam browser works fine, and mandatory implementation means "svck it up and enjoy, you got it whether you want it or not."

You can disable Steam UI integration even when Steam is used as DRM.

» Fri Feb 18, 2011 9:08 pm

It's a real bummer to have the game crash everytime you try to alt-tab out of it, say, to look up something on UESP. There's really no valid excuse why it shouldn't have worked with Morrowind and Oblivion (not supporting alt-tab is just making an excuse for buggy code.) and I'd really hope that, by Skyrim, Bethesda would have figured out how to properly handled this.

Just a wish is all.

I always find with any game, that going to the load/save/exit screen(by pressing esc) then alt tabing to be a more reliable way to keep the game running.

» Fri Feb 18, 2011 8:15 pm

It's a real bummer to have the game crash everytime you try to alt-tab out of it, say, to look up something on UESP. There's really no valid excuse why it shouldn't have worked with Morrowind and Oblivion (not supporting alt-tab is just making an excuse for buggy code.) and I'd really hope that, by Skyrim, Bethesda would have figured out how to properly handled this.

Just a wish is all.

Fallout 3 worked fine that way if you enabled the console before you did it, I believe the same trick worked in Oblivion.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 6:48 am

Really the game crashing on alt-tab was a major flaw. It's surprising they never bothered fixing it. I'd go so far as to say it's partially incompatible with Windows due to that issue.

Think it depend on system (hardware, windows and drivers), current win 7 64 never crashes, previous win xp system crashed half of the time I switched.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 3:15 am

Fallout 3 worked fine that way if you enabled the console before you did it, I believe the same trick worked in Oblivion.

That did not work for me in Oblivion, but both new Fallout games can be minimised and opened again without any problems at all.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 1:45 am

For me Morrowind crashes everytime I exit...

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 10:06 am

I only experienced this problem after installing a few hundred mods and high res textures.

vanilla Oblivion does not crash on Alt+Tab for me, nor New Vegas or FO3.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 11:09 am

Morrowind was the only one that didn't support alt tabbing. In Oblivion, you could alt tab with the console keyed and you wouldn't crash.
Given the fact that Skyrim looks to be more stable, I'd guess it will support it also.

» Fri Feb 18, 2011 8:01 pm

That did not work for me in Oblivion, but both new Fallout games can be minimised and opened again without any problems at all.

My mistake, anyway, this is an issue that needs to be fixed. I mean yeah, a decent size screen is dirt cheap these days, but I'd still rather set up one big one than two slightly smaller ones. It's much easier to get into the game when there's only one screen drawing your attention anyway.